On Monday, March 5, former HURI fellow Mayhill Fowler will present her new book, Beau Monde on Empire's Edge: State and Stage in Soviet Ukraine, at the Seminar in Ukrainian Studies. Focusing on Les Kurbas, the Berezil Theater, and Kurbas' circle, the book reveals the richness of Soviet theater on the periphery of the USSR.

Due to political centralization and state control over cultural institutions, Moscow became the center for Soviet theater and the regions were provincialized. Despite the quality of their work, artists from the regions (like Kurbas) were treated as lesser and destined to be forgotten in the shadows of their Moscow or Leningrad peers.

Fowler will bring these artists and their works to light at the talk on Monday. Read this interview article for a closer look at Fowler's research interests and discoveries.

Despite his eminent literary works, Ukrainian émigré writer Yurii Kosach (1908-90) is neither as well known nor as well liked as his family members, literary figures Lesia Ukrainka and Olena Pchilka. In Ukraine, he is most closely associated with controversy, a label inspired by his collaboration with pro-Soviet and otherwise politically oriented newspapers and journals. As a result, his works have generally been left out of the canon of Ukrainian literature, and many have been forgotten.

However, Fulbright fellow Olha Poliukhovych suggests taking a closer look at the writer, his works, and his circumstances. Was he pro-Soviet? Should his works be associated mainly with this history? Why has he been treated differently than other writers who contributed to the same newspapers and journals?

Serhii Plokhii (Plokhy), Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, has won the Shevchenko National Prize for The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine. The Shevchenko Prize is Ukraine’s highest state award, making it one of the most prestigious distinctions a work of literature, non-fiction, or art can receive in Ukraine.

Upon learning that he had won the Prize, Plokhii noted the broader significance of having the Committee choose a work of non-fiction by a Harvard historian: “This award is really a recognition of the work that has been done by scholars outside of Ukraine, particularly at the Ukrainian Research Institute,” he said. “The efforts of Harvard’s other faculty chairs in Ukrainian studies and the founders have elevated the caliber of Ukrainian studies in the West, and Ukraine has taken notice.” Read more.

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A Rus' Princess in Thirteenth-Century Poland: Cultural and Political Connections Between the Courts of Krakow and Galicia-Volhynia during the Reign of Duchess Gremislava Ingarvna, c. 1227-1258Talia Zajac, Shklar Fellow, Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University; PhD, University of Toronto (Centre for Medieval Studies)Room S-050, CGIS South, Harvard University